Toronto Star columnist Daphne Gordon looks back on her time at the Ashram writers’ retreat.

Last summer, when I attended the Yoga, Writing and Reflection course at Yasodhara Ashram, I packed some comfortable yoga clothes, my favourite fast-writing pen, and a lifelong yearning to write a book.

A week later, when I left the Ashram to fly home, I took with me a working title for my book, an inner tool kit of spiritual practices I knew could help me get it written, and a sweet smile in my heart.

The five-day course, which focuses mainly on Swami Radha’s teachings of Hidden Language Hatha Yoga but also introduces other basic practices used here at the Ashram, was a life-shifting event for me.

I’d been working as a writer at major daily newspaper, but when it came to my own fiction work, I was all talk and no action. My creative voice had shut down after years of using my writing skill to make a living.

By getting down on the mat to listen to my body’s inherent knowing, exploring symbols that arose during dreams, and learning to see my writing as an offering to Divine Mother, my writing voice came to life. It vibrated with smooth rhythm, sparkled with bright imagery and resonated with universal truth.

Though I came to the course with a specific writing project in mind, the course is not exclusively designed for seasoned writers. Nor is experience with yoga a prerequisite.

By the end of the week, it seemed we had all dipped deep into our own wells of inner poetry. And we were startled by the beauty and insight that seemed to spring forth. Tears and laughter; joy and pain. It all laid itself down on the page with a kind of ease and grace that can only be described as divine inspiration.